It's time for another weekly Homestead Photography Contest. The theme this week is Blue Around The Homestead. When I think of blue on the homestead, what comes to mind is blueberry. I did my first update on my blueberries almost a month ago. You can read my post Tips for Growing Blueberries Successfully if you are interested in growing your own blueberries.
Rabbiteyes Blueberry
We planted four Rabbiteyes blueberry bushes when we first started gardening 6 years ago. We added two or three more blueberry bushes each year after that. We now have 16 blueberry bushes in our food forest. In previous years, we only put up bird netting for four of our oldest blueberry bushes. Some of the younger bushes were still establishing the roots and not yet producing. The bushes that were three to five years old were producing, but we used them to feed the birds who are my food forest natural pest managers. Got to feed those managers or they will find better paying job somewhere else.
This year we did something different. A lot more of our bushes are producing tons of blueberries, so we put up three different types of netting and cover a total of eight blueberry bushes. This year we also took our time harvesting them. Blueberry has a long harvest season and holds well on the bush, so as long as they are protected from hungry birds, there is a large window for harvest.
We let all the different varieties stay on the bushes until they are super ripe this year. Ripe enough that you don't actually have to pick, blueberries just fall down when they are barely touched. Wow, I have never tasted blueberries this sweet before.
We were stuffing our faces with blueberries while we harvest the super ripe berries. I ate them even if they fell to the ground. I just could not get enough of these candy like blueberries. Our fingers were blue & purple by the time we were done harvesting. I felt like a kid in a candy store...a natural candy store offering good for you candies :-)
A Blueberry is a Blueberry
I have read many orchard books talking about the different varieties of blueberries. They usually list the different characteristics of each variety. Colors ranging from light blue to powder blue to dark blue. Some varieties have full sweetness and some are sweet with a little acid. They also have different growing habits. Some are more vigorous and upright and some are spreading with open growth habit.
I have Brightwell, Climax, Austin, Tiftblue, Premier & Powderblue blueberry bushes in my food forest. To be honest, I have never been able to taste the difference in the flavor in past years. A Brightwell variety blueberry tastes the same as the Climax , Tiftblue, or Powderblue varieties. To me, a blueberry was a blueberry.
Tasting the Subtle Differences
However, this year I can really taste the subtle differences in flavor of each variety. Perhaps we harvested too early in previous years or maybe my taste buds have developed over the years to appreciate the different flavors of blueberries.
We just finished harvesting all of the blueberries except for one bush. This year we easily tripled our blueberry harvest from eight bushes. I did not weight the total harvest since we did not harvest everything at the same time. Wish I had done it, so I can show you how much money we saved by growing blueberries ourselves and how much blueberries you can get just from eight bushes.
Our globalized food system is in despair. Monocropping is destroying animal and soil life on earth. Through mass factory farming, crops are continuously treated with toxic chemicals that leach into our food, water, and soil. The continuation of such practices have, and will continue to lead to our food becoming less nutritional and more detrimental to our bodies. By learning to grow, even a minimal amount of food, you will be making a difference.
My mission on Steemit is to show everyone how easy it can be to grow your own organic, nutrient dense food. By growing your own food you will be less dependent on greedy corporations and take back power from big AG. You will save money and not contribute to the problems of our food supply. You too can gain food freedom by growing your own food.
If we want change, we must do it ourselves!
This is my entry to this week's Blue on the Homestead contest. Thank you for stopping by.
yes yes yes! this is the message that needs to be plastered on billboards everywhere. good job!!! empowerment through growing your own food (especially perennials!) puts our wellbeing and thriving back into our hands. thanks for this. resteemed. also, a great note about how they start to taste better the longer you leave them on/you could taste the subtle differences :)
Aww, your comment is very encouraging! Thank you so much. It is very empowering for sure to take powers back into our own hands. I am glad I set out on this journey to food freedom. I have been so inspired by you guys, I only hope I can inspire others on Steemit.
Thank you for the resteem!
I would like to taste test the difference. Since I do Not have any growing yet, I need a Small sample of each kind, say 5 pounds each. It will only take me a week or two to eat, er...to "test" all five of the small 5 pound samples...LOL!
:)Nice harvest, enjoy the fruits of your labors! I would enter, but I have no blue on the homestead.
Lol, if you were my neighbor, I would totally let you join in on the taste test. You are guaranteed to have purple/blue fingers.
My neighbor was taste testing with us. He kept eating and said he couldn't taste the difference, so he must keep eating. Haha, I have no problem sharing my harvest with good people.
Pay attention to @knowledge-seeker 's post. This is a weekly contest with new theme each week. There are always lots of different interesting take on the theme. It's fun and as a bonus, you get a small reward if you win. Hope you will join sometimes :-)
I will look into it, sounds fun!
I put some blueberries into some plain Greek yogurt and left it overnight; you should try it!
:DGood!
Ha, I don't eat yogurt :)
Vegan? Sorry you can't use it!
:'(we have been harvesting our blueberries for 2 weeks now. we diversified our crop last year and planted a couple of pink lemonade blueberry plants. They add a fun pop of pink to the mix - but really don't taste any different than a typical blueberry. They might be a little bit tarter if any thing. Now just to keep the sheep and goats from eating them all! they make a B line for the blueberry patch anytime we let them out to free forage. They really like to munch on our grapes too - the spoiled turds.
Haha, sounds like you have a wonderful homestead. I have been looking at the pink lemonade blueberry this year, wondering if I should add that variety to my food forest. Maybe my newly developed taste buds can help me taste the difference :)
Thank you for stopping by and commenting.
I say go for it! the pop of color alone is worth it. I would love to hear your opinion on their taste. Like I said - to me they are just a little more tart than your standard blueberry. However, they are the ones the goat and Sheep head to first so they must be good.
Amen sister! LOVE these blueberries, I would go crazy if I had my hands on these lovely gems!
We definitely went crazy in the food forest!!! I have never eaten so many blueberries in one sitting. It was so tasty and satisfying. I had so much blueberries I had to whiten my teeth with coconut oil afterwards to remove the slight blue stain/tint on my teeth. Haha, so worth it!
oh my goodness, you made me choke on my drink with that teeth whitening statement...I seriously had a visual, I'm still giggling as I read. I would love to have berry bushes, I can't imagine what animals I would attract where I live, but I'm sure many I don't even know live nearby! Enjoy them for me! I'll be dreaming about blueberries tonight!
OH YES!! Take back our Garden Goddess and Kitchen Goddess powers!! Lovely post. Blue Berries need a mortgage here in Thailand and are always a bit flat on flavour. Makes travel such a joy, though, to gorge when one can. :)
Yeah, I grew up in Asian. I know how expensive blueberries are. It's quite ridiculous, but it does not grow in that climate, so it's understandable. There are a lot more varieties of fruit in Asian. I love to gorge on them when I travel back to visit family. It's such a treat!
Wonderful post @thelaundrylady. Now I'm craving blueberries. I just can't stand getting them from the grocery store anymore. The 2 bushes I planted when we moved in 8 years ago.....got trampled by the dogs the 2nd year. I was not happy, I even had fencing around it. Granted it was only 3 ft high, but still. On the other side from the blueberry and raspberry bushes we had, I had an amazing strawberry patch. My one puppy (which at the time he was still a puppy) thought laying in the strawberry patch was much cooler than laying in the dirt. I got 6 actual strawberries that year. The were soooo tiny, but GIANT taste it was like they were supercharged.
I really want to get my garden going again. I'm thinking of converting the garage and trying hydroponics. The main issues we have is we still have nights that freeze well into May and sometimes snow. By July it's arid and avg temp 100+, then we have very alkaline soil.
I really need to just start following more homesteaders and permaculturists I completely agree with producing our own. We get better quality, no pesticides, and it's A LOT cheaper. The only thing I need to figure out is how to collect rainwater so nobody knows. Believe it or not, it's illegal in Colorado to collect rainwater. That is a crime I'm willing to commit. Maybe if I get some of the barrels ...paint them up and put ivy around them no one would be the wiser?
Think for a moment what we are saying here. You can't collect rain water on your own property because the local government deem it ILLEGAL. Things are getting more and more ridiculous. In some cities, you can't grow food in your own front yard. Does that sound like freedom to you?
And just look at the revolving doors of Monsanto and the regulators. Let me give you an example. The FDA's approved Monsanto's genetically engineered cattle drug rBGH, which failed to gain approval in other countries including Europe & Canada. So let's take a look at whoare involved in approving rBGH. Michael Taylor, the FDA's deputy commissioner for policy is the one who wrote the FDA's rBGH labeling guidelines. The FDA announced that labels on non-rBGH products must state that there is no difference between rBGH and the naturally occurring hormone. SERIOUSLY!? Later on, Taylor was publicly exposed as a former lawyer for the Monsanto corporation for seven years.
If we don't take the power back from Big AG and the greedy corporations, we can't really call this a FREE country, can we ... Okay, I will stop ranting now. It got my blood boiling thinking about this.
Don't give up on gardening. If your area is not suited for growing blueberries, then grow something else that's suited for your area. It will make gardening easier as well. We can all do our part, however small. You can make a difference :-)
I was waiting for that. It's insane, completely insane. I completely agree. This is not freedom at all. Even in some of the most desolate places they can collect rainwater. I feel like I'm in the twilight zone sometimes.
I spoke with a local nursery and I think they think I'm crazy with all the questions I ask. I've gotten a work around for the blueberries. Make my hole a little deeper put in a bag of sphagnum then the blueberries on top. It was working great until the dogs tore them up. I didn't have them long enough to start producing.
I even moved the major portion of my garden outside of my gate (we have a rather large side yard that had been used for parking by the previous owners) I want to make the whole area a garden. My husband is not crazy about it 'They'll steal our food' I told him if they're that hungry they need to take out of our garden let them.
Have you noticed everyone put into a position of interest has been someone who has been against or out to destroy that department of the government? Someone who is connected to Big Pharma, Big Ag and so forth?
A good nursery will always be helpful with questions you have. I learned a lot from my local nursery.
Peat moss is the perfect thing to use to amend soil and prep it for blueberry. Peat moss is very acidic so it will acidify your soil. See you already know what to do. Sometimes life happens and our pets decide to lay on the plants (trust me I know how it is. My dog likes to sit on everything green and has killed many plants) and killing them. Learn from that and make better plans next time to protect the bushes.
I love that you are trying to grow in your front yard as well. Maybe some people will steal your produce, maybe you will inspire someone else in the neighborhood to start growing their own. I say go for it!
Yes, there are plenty of these people in government positions now who used to work for Big Pharma, Big Ag. It's sickening really.
those blueberries look so good, and thank you for educating me about the different varieties, I really do hope more people wake up to the fact that modern farming i.e mono culture is destroying the soil and the future of farming itself, it is making food become so unnatural. Great post xxx
Thank you and I too hope more people will wake up to the fact modern farming is destroying soil life. Without fertile soil, our food will have no nutrients to feed our bodies. Hope people don't wake up too late.
Your blueberries are looking really good @thelaundrylady! We planted several blueberries bushes several years ago and they never really seemed to take off. There are a few that produce just about every year and they produce some of the sweetest tasting berries. Good Job!
Thank you! I have been spoiled by my own homegrown blueberries. I don't even buy the fresh ones in the grocery stores anymore. It would seem that all homegrown produce taste better and are better for you anyways.
While blueberries are my favourite I also thought a blueberry was a blueberry was a blueberry! This has been a fascinating read! I'm sorry I missed it until today. When I saw @knowledge-seeker mention "blue week" I decided our homestead had nothing to offer so I skipped over. Your blueberries look delicious. Now to get mine to grow....
Thank you. You could have done something with blue. The second place was a birdhouse painted blue :-) . It's always interesting to see your entry. Your homestead looks very different than what I have seen online. Thank you for stopping by.
Thank you for the compliment. I'll definitely be doing the green!